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Alan Gross, right, a former government contractor arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Wednesday.

American contractor Alan Gross, who was held in prison for five years in Cuba, was released Wednesday as part of an agreement that included the release of Cubans jailed in the United States. Cuba had accused him of being an American spy.

His mom, Evelyn Gross, who lived in an assisted-living center in Plano, died this summer before she could see her son released. I interviewed her in early 2010 — shortly after Gross was detained in Cuba — about her son and what he was doing in Cuba. The Dallas Morning News didn’t publish a story based on the interview because Gross’ family believed it might have hurt his chances of being released.

Now that Gross has been released, here is what his mom said.

“He had gone to Cuba three times before. The fourth time they stopped him. They weren’t doing any harm. He was giving out cellphones to people to help them contact family,” she said. “He’s been to 50 countries in the 30 years doing this job. He only means to do good for people. They’ve objected to him doing it. After all, it’s a communist country.”

Evelyn Gross said her son called his wife, Judy, when he was at an airport in Cuba on his way back to the United States. “So when my daughter-in-law saw he wasn’t home at the time, she called the State Department and, yes, they found out that he was jailed.”

Evelyn Gross said she was encouraging friends at her assisted-living center to write letters to their elected representatives, urging them to try to free her son. After his arrest, Gross’ family was asked by the State Department not to publicly discuss the case.

“I just don’t know anything. We weren’t allowed to even tell anyone. I have yet to tell my sister in Maryland,” Evelyn Gross said in the interview with The Dallas Morning News. “I’m a person who likes to talk, and it was really difficult. As an 87-year-old mother, it’s not easy to take this. He’s a very good person and son, but they don’t care about that over there.”

She said her son had spent his career traveling to other countries to help scout areas for companies to open. She said he had been to Africa and Haiti, including a trip to the island nation to help a shirt factory open.

“He goes there, say Haiti, he said that he finds if there is enough electricity and transportation and enough of everything, the things he needs to start a business. He makes an arrangement for a company,” she said.

She said she struggled to make sense of what happened to her son and Cuba’s refusal to believe that he was only trying to help people there.

“I was OK in December and January [2009],” she said. Then in February, I fell apart.”

As part of the deal for Gross’ release, the U.S. released three Cuban spies, the last members of the so-called Cuban 5 still imprisoned in the U.S. The five were arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001.

In the interview four years ago, Evelyn Gross thought maybe the U.S. would exchange the Cubans for her son’s release. ”There are five Cuban prisoners here in the states. My stupid mind is that they are going to trade them,” she said.

Updated June 9, 10 p.m. The Keller School Board of Trustees held a meeting Monday evening to address one member’s anti-Muslim comments.

Protesters gathered outside the Keller Education Center around 6 p.m. They did not shout or speak to Jo Lynn Haussmann as she walked past them and into the center, but their signs spoke for them.

“Daddy- why does the school lady hate our church so much?” Said John Schleeter’s handmade sign.

Schleeter has a nephew who is a student in the Keller district and a Muslim, and is calling for Haussmann to resign.

“Bigotry is the product of a lack of education,” he said, “and you can’t have someone who needs to be educated in charge of education.”

Over 150 people came to hear the board and members of the Keller community address Haussmann and her comments.

Out of the 48 people who signed up to speak before the meeting, 36 people were called at random to the podium. Six of those who spoke encouraged Haussmann to stay on the board, the rest called for her resignation.

High school junior Neha Muraly was the first to speak. “This saddens me to see such comments,” said Murlay, “and know that the trustee is not only undermining the man she addressed, but also the students she is elected to represent.”

Missy Brewer has worked in Keller ISD for 12 years as a librarian, and has two sons in a local high school. Brewer said, “I am a life-long Christian and Conservative voter. But an educational institution is not the place for political agenda.”

Keller resident James Malone, stood in support of Haussmann. He said, “why are we here? There’s no reason. Let us have freedom of speech in our homes and on our Facebook pages.”

Ultimately, after listening to the public and holding an executive session for over an hour, the board announced that Haussmann refused to resign.

Haussmann was then censured, or publicly reprimanded, by the board.

Haussmann asserted that her Facebook post was aimed at the issue of voter turnout, and not the Muslim man running for office.

She said, “I’m so sorry that I have disappointed many but I know that I’m not perfect, and I know I have a forgiving God and I know I can go on and give my heart to this ISD. My heart is with the children.”

Due to the limited legal ability of the board Haussmann will remain in her position until 2017 when her term is up.

Original Post: June 9, 12:53 p.m.: The Keller ISD Board of Trustees will hold a meeting tonight to discuss one trustee’s anti-Muslim comments.

Jo Lynn Haussmann has made anti-Muslim comments on a few of her social media accounts, but it was her post about a newly elected Muslim City Council member that brought backlash.

At 6:30 p.m. members of the public can join the board at the Keller Education Center at 350 Keller Parkway, and voice their opinions on Haussmanns’ comments.

The board will then go behind closed doors, and Haussmann will decide whether to remain on the board or leave voluntarily.

The Keller ISD board trustee facing a backlash after writing an anti-Muslim post on Facebook has apologized — but it isn’t the first time she’s made such comments.

Jo Lynn Haussmann was posting about the recent City Council election in Southlake. The now-deleted Facebook post read, “Do you realize because SO FEW voters took the time and responsibility to VOTE in the municipal elections – YOU NOW HAVE A ‘MUSLIM’ on the City Council!!! What A SHAME!!!!”

But this isn’t the first time she’s made anti-Muslim comments. Almost a year ago, before she was on the board, she commented on a political Youtube video where she once again attacked Muslims and their stance on abortion and same sex marriage.

One of her comments read, “If Muslims aren’t for it, then why is Obama and all of his muslim followers supporting it? Why is HE not decapitated!?!”

The Keller ISD School Board of Trustees is holding a special meeting Monday to address the anti-Muslim comments made by the new trustee. The board released a statement that said they were, “disheartened and highly offended” by Haussmann’s words.

“We want our community to know that this behavior by a board member is unacceptable, and that it will be addressed,” said Board President Jim Stitt.

The Keller ISD meeting will occur Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the KISD Education Center.

A photo posted on the Open Carry Tarrant County's page shows two men in a Home Depot with rifles slung over their arms.

Open Carry Tarrant County is planning a rally Saturday in North Richland Hills, billed as the “greatest” the county has ever seen.

Starting at 11:30 a.m. supporters will fill the back of the parking lot at the Home Depot on Precinct Line Road to listen to speakers, have an open-carry education session and hold a raffle. Prizes include revolvers, an AR 15 rifle, over 1,500 rounds of ammunition and Rangers tickets, according to the group’s Facebook page.

Rally organizer Kory Watkins, 30, wants to make it clear that Saturday’s event is not a protest.

“Protesters are angry; and we are not angry people. If you come up to us, you will see we are smiling and friendly,” he said. “We are demonstrating, demonstrating our rights and demonstrating how the law lets you carry a long gun, but you can’t open carry a pistol.”

The rally comes days after a testy Memorial Day exchange between an open-carry group and a Marine veteran in Fort Worth (see the video below) and a week after Chipotle and other restaurants made headlines by prohibiting guns following an incident in Dallas’ West End.

Watkins said his group has been meeting at the Home Depot for almost a year, and unlike other businesses and cities like Arlington who have clashed with the group, the home improvement giant has “stayed neutral.”

“They respect the rights of the people and we realize that,” Watkins said. “Their parking lost are always huge so we can park in the back and not bother nobody.”

At this very moment Roden’s in Southern California to visit with Huy Fong Foods’ head hot-sauce man David Tran, hoping to convince Tran to move to operations to North Texas — or, at the very least, to expand distribution operations here. It looks like a long shot: Huy Fong folks believe the dust-up with the Irwindale City Council over the chili fumes is likely to dissipate, and, besides, there’s just something about that SoCal soil needed to grow the peppers that make Sriracha so delicious and desirable to diners and poaching politicians alike.

Craig Underwood, who oversees Huy Fong’s pepper-growing operation, tells the Pasadena Star-News in today’s paper that moving to Texas isn’t as easy as, say, loading up a few Toyotas. “Moving or even expanding an operation like this is a huge challenge,” Underwood said. “It’s taken us years to find varieties and growing areas here.”

In other words: Don’t hold your breath (unless you live around the Sriracha factory?).

“We have great industrial sites with access to rail, an airport and Interstate 35, as well as a municipally owned electric utility providing 40 percent wind power, competitive costs and award-wining reliability,” says the council member. Roden’s not there alone, either: He’s taken Denton Director of Economic Development Aimee Bissett, Energy Services Development Officer Brian Daskam and the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, Adam Gawarecki. If nothing else maybe they too can pick up some Sriracha underpants.

Dr. Arjumand Hashmi, a prominent cardiologist selected by his Paris City Council peers to be mayor in 2011, confirmed Wednesday that he won’t seek the mayor’s post next Monday.

That’s when the council is set to canvass votes from Saturday’s election and pick a new leadership team.
Hashmi, 53, will remain on the council for at least another year before his term expires next May. But with two of the four council members who were solidly in his corner losing their seats Saturday, Hashmi would’ve had to fight to keep the top post.

He said he possibly could have mustered the four votes needed to hang onto the job. Instead, he decided to use the coming year to focus on his District 7 constituents and contemplate his political future.

“I’ve had an extremely good three years,” Hashmi said in a phone interview Wednesday. “My term is coming to a completion next Monday and I’m very thrilled by the fact I’ve had a wonderful council and team to work with. And we’ve achieved some things that no other council has achieved in the last 30 years.

“We brought accountability, transparency and we have improved the health, safety and quality of life of our residents, and I’m very proud of it,” said Hashmi, the director of interventional cardiology at Paris Regional Medical Center.

The man whom Texas Monthly dubbed “the most interesting man in Paris, Texas” drew international attention to the town of 25,000 because of his faith and his link to former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf.

Hashmi has treated Musharraf for several years and hosted him at his homes in Paris and Highland Park.

His religion didn’t go unnoticed in a town dominated by Baptists and other Christians. But it was Hashmi’s push for an ongoing probe into questionable spending by the Paris Economic Development Corporation that prompted what his backers call a “good old boy” network to run a slate against the mayor’s allies.

“Even if the four council members had gotten reelected,” Hashmi said, “I would’ve sincerely requested me not being nominated for mayor.”

The term “constituent services” took on a whole new meaning for me today.

Like many of you, I was driving into work, carefully navigating the heavier-than-forecast snow, when I bumped into someone I didn’t know — literally.

I hit a patch of ice at the intersection of Gaston and Abrams and skidded into the car in front of me, which had stopped for a red light.

“Are you all right?” I asked, after we’d pulled into a nearby parking lot to inspect the damage.

“I’m fine,” the other driver said. He added that the road conditions were so bad the accident was unavoidable and that he didn’t blame me for busting his bumper.

Standing in the snow, exchanging all the details required of accidents and insurance companies, we started chatting. I mentioned that the roads were worse than I’d expected, especially near White Rock Lake. He asked me where I lived. Was it Forest Hills? No, I said, starting to explain the location of my relatively remote little community. “Oh, the Enclave,” he replied.

Stunned, I wondered for a second if he was a new neighbor I’d not yet met.

Then he smiled and said, “I’m your state representative, Eric Johnson.”

Had Rep. Johnson not been where he was this morning, I would have skidded into a busy rush-hour intersection with likely far greater consequences than some front-end damage.

That he was gracious and kind about a rotten start to his day makes our first meeting all the more memorable.

I don’t publicly discuss my politics — it’s a requirement of the job. But if elections were based on good neighborliness and generosity of spirit, he’d have my vote.

“I am proud of my service to Denton and am seeking to continue serving and giving back to my community,” says Farris, a 10-year-resident of Denton who’s also one of the driving forces behind the blog We Denton Do It — which has a rather lengthy post about his freshly minted candidacy.

In the official release, Farris is quick to mention he’s not just a one-hit wonder: He’s been president of the downtown Denton neighborhood association, serves on the executive board of directors of the Downtown Main Street Association and sits on Denton’s Public Art Committee and its Citizens Bond Advisory Committee for the 2014 bond election program, which wraps its duties in May. But it would be wrong to suggest he’s been eying a run for office for a while.

“It’s a volunteer position, 20 to 30 hours a week,” he says over the phone. “And, really, I’ve always been a volunteer. I was raised in Boy Scouts, I was an Eagle Scout, and a lot of that is service. I’ve always been involved with it, and eventually you get put on these committees and you get looked at as someone who will show up and serve, and one things turns into another. The seat opened up, and as talk of that went around people start vetting people and seeing who would be interested. It came to me from a from several different people, and I always said if I was asked to pick up trash I would do it and if I was asked to be on the city council I would do it. Seemed like the right fit and the right time.”

And given the time requirements, Farris won’t have to quit his day job — or his nighttime gigs either, even though his official announcement doesn’t mention that he’s a musician. Farris says that’s because, well, the average age in his district is 61, and he’s not sure that would “resonate” much with likely voters.

“The thing about Denton is it’s a small town,” he says. “There are small-town politics, and it’s traditionally been run by a small group of folks who know each other and know who’s going to be the next city council member or mayor. But we’re going to double in size by 2030, so they say, and Kevin Roden kind of set as precedent for someone not from the establishment getting elected to the council. But there’s not been a musician on the council, as far as I know. It’s weird.”

As you’ll see in the interview below, Chris Cuomo brought up Bae, to which Rodman’s initial response was, “Do you understand what Kenneth Bae did?” Well, no, said Cuomo –nobody does. At which point Rodman tried to change the subject, much to the morning-show host’s chagrin. Then, boom goes the dynamite: “I don’t give a rat’s ass what the hell you think,” Rodman told Cuomo, before launching into a tirade in which he paints himself as … a victim. Of what he doesn’t say.

FARMERS BRANCH — The mayoral race here in the ‘burb known for immigration battles isn’t until May but two candidates say they’re running: Carol Dingman, a co-founder of the civic action group Branch Forum, and Andy Olivo, a business lawyer.

The current first-term mayor, 72-year-old Bill Glancy, says he’ll make a decision as early as this week on whether he takes on the re-election challenge from the 70-year-old Dingman and the 65-year-old Olivo.

Glancy is a retired packaging manager who succeeded Tim O’Hare as mayor, a personal injury lawyer who first launched the immigration fight here in 2006. In the mayoral race three years ago, Glancy billed himself as a bridge-maker and received both endorsements from Dingman and O’Hare.

“I will probably decide later this week,” Glancy said Monday. “It is a big sacrifice for your family and at my age you start valuing every day.”

In a 3-2 vote in August, the city council voted to appealed the latest court ruling against its ordinance to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to announce in December or January whether it’ll dismiss the case or take up the issue. The city has spent $6,131,539 in its legal fight since 2006, the city’s finance director said.

The ordinance isn’t in effect because of the court rulings against it. The proposed ordinance seeks to bar immigrants in the U.S. unlawfully from rental housing in the city of about 29,000.

Both declared candidates say they’re against the appeal, calling it a federal issue.

Dingman was a Farmers Branch city councilwoman from 1981 to 1987. The former public school teacher also served on the Farmers Branch planning and zoning commission before that, and most recently on the charter review committee this year. The Branch Forum has led debate here against the ordinance.

Dingman said Farmers Branch is at a turning point.

“Farmers Branch is at a place where we need new ideas and news faces to move forward,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of enthusiastic support. I’m ready.”

Dingman is endorsed by Farmers Branch mayor pro tem Jeff Fuller and city council members Ana Reyes and Kirk Connally. Dingman has also hired a political consultant to manage her campaign.

Dingman is vice president of Orion Realty Advisors Inc., a real estate investment firm headed by her husband. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Ripon College of Wisconsin. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin.

Olivo was on the Carrollton City Council from 1996 through 2002. He hasn’t lined up a campaign manager yet.

Olivo and his wife moved to a Farmers Branch apartment in 2011 and into a Farmers Branch house this year.

Olivo was born in West Texas and graduated from the University of Texas, El Paso, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He attended law school at the University of Houston. He also served for 30 years in active duty or the reserves of the U.S. Army.

During a portion of that time, Olivo served as a judge advocate general in the military’s legal branch.

“Farmers Branch wants a mayor who is strong and is not tainted by the past and can settle the issues,” Olivo said. “They need someone who can speak to the English-speaking community and the Spanish-speaking community. I’m the only one.”

Elections in Farmers Branch have been tense in recent years. The Justice Department has sent election monitors to the city this past May, in 2009, 2008 and in 2007.

The city was successfully sued by 10 Hispanic plaintiffs for Voting Rights Act violations last year. That resulted in the creation of single-member districts where candidates must come from the neighborhoods they represent. About 45 percent of the city is of Hispanic descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.